You have aiptasia. What will you do?

[~reefchik~]

Egads...turned over a rock doing some tank maintenance about a week ago and you should see the freakin' aips on this rock now!

I know my choices are:

A:    "Kill Aiptasia" liquid/syringe (which I have.  It's pretty hit or miss IMO)

B:     Peppermints (again, not impressed with their activity on larger aiptasia)

C:     Butterfly (probably Kleins?) <<this appeals as I'm ready to add a nice fish

D:     Kalk mix (tried it before, didn't work well at all)

E:     Berghia nudibranchs

F:     Burn with lighter (ick, never tried it but found it on a site)

G:     none of the above, make suggestion_______________________________________________

What else?  I need to get on it soon.   These are large and probably reproducing like crazy 

[slandis3]

I have tried them all but F. I just added a copperban butterfly  we will see how that works.
E this is very expensive as depending on your tank size you may need to add quite a few to start. Or worse a fish could pick at them and kill them. I am building a new stand this spring. At that time (if the copperban doesn't work) I am going to remove all fish and corals. Bleach the tank and rocks and start over fresh.

[Secondgen]

I use Aptaisia X from Red Sea, and it works great.

[slandis3]

Yes that does work good. My tank is just too deep to get to the bottom as well as the back side of the rocks.

[Secondgen]

Its time for scuba gear then Mike. 

[~reefchik~]

slandis, you sound like you've totally BTDT with these things, too.
I'm leaning towards ordering berghia but I would love a nice new fish.  

I never mentioned that Landis is my family name, but when I see someone I always like to chat about family.  Landis isn't that common a name, and my grandfather and great-grandfather were from the Indiana area.

Secondgen:  that stuff sounds very interesting!  I hadn't seen that product yet.  I will research it more.  Thanks.

[~reefchik~]

Yes that does work good. My tank is just too deep to get to the bottom as well as the back side of the rocks.

Yeah, mine too, although I have just a 90.

I've got a problem right now which makes "hunting & shooting" them an unappealing solution.  I spent a long time scraping coralline 2 weekends ago (maybe 2 hours) and followed it up with shampooing the family room carpets the next day.  Result?  Tendonitis in right arm.  Plus, I got my chemo port removed about 10 days ago (right chest area) and it got infected.  I'm a bit nervous at this point about having my hand and arm in the water for an extended time given a few small cuts on the hand, and my immune system not being 100% 

[Blown76mav]

PBITAWA   

[Joel]

red sea's aptasia X works really well. YOu don't inject the aptasia with it. This stuff has the consistency of cake batter, you used the included syringe and simply drop a small "glob" of it into the aptasia. The aptasia will ingest it and dissolve in a very short amount of time. Works on manjo anemone as well.

Joel

[HUNGER]

i use kalk  but i only have had a few  and can reach them

[xXTheWendigoXx]

I had tremendous luck combining a few peppermint shrimp to tackle the little ones combined with stuff called Joe's Juice (which I'm sure is probably almost identical to Aptaisia X). Whatever you do, I recommend taking a two pronged approach because the pesky things always seem to survive a single approach.

[atreis]

Peppermint Shrimp, and use a syringe to inject vinegar into the larger ones (saltwater critters really don't like acid).

[hamiltro]

i say just go with a copperband it will do the job plus you get a new fish0

[jjw2121]

I just got 2 copperbands 2 weeks ago (thanks Joel) and 100% of my aptasia is gone.  I bet they ate 30 aptasia in 3 days

[woltersb]

File fish... Justin ordered me one, ate every last one of those things! Its also a pretty cool fish!

[Aquatic Specialists]

When it comes to the peppermint shrimp you have to make sure they are the ones that eat aptasia, there are look-alikes. Generally, 3 or more will have you cleaned up. The Berghia work great but you need a small army to acheive your goal. Copperbands work well also, but they can and probably will eat more desirable life forms also.

[~reefchik~]

PBITAWA   

Say what??

[~reefchik~]

I just found out about the tassle nosed filefish. 

Well, update:  I now have 3 Berghia in there, got them overnight.  So we'll see how they do.  However IMO they are going to need help, since the newly discovered aiptasia are HUGE and the rock is covered.  We're talking solid colony.  Must have been something about that particular rock, turned around facing the back of the tank and partially submerged that perfectly suited these pests.

I think the Aiptasia X is a good adjunct at this point.  Ya'll have me convinced it should work ok on the largest ones and there are plenty of tiny baby aips for the berghia to grow fat on.  We hope.....

Thanks a million for your help, as always it's very much appreciated 

[Blown76mav]

Say what??

Google it......

[slandis3]

My method of removal

Pour Bleach in Tank and Walk Away

[Rayman]

peppermint shrimp ate all mine the first night in the tank and i put in in at like 7:30 to 8:00.

[UD Flyer]

Peppermints have always worked for me. Its been a long time since I had any, but the peppermints I bought all came from Joel, and ate the biggest of big aptasia I had.

I think the Berghia (sp?) is more like a gimmick. They may work, but you need a lot of them, or if they dont find each other to reproduce they will die and you'll still be left with the aptasia. And if they do eat it all, then they'll die unless you keep up on making the aptasia stay in your tank. 

File fish on the other hand are extremely hard to keep from what I have read and typically require a very specific diet. 

Ultimately, the decision is yours to make.

[~reefchik~]

Google it......

Sure fire fix, grant ya that 

[~reefchik~]

peppermint shrimp ate all mine the first night in the tank and i put in in at like 7:30 to 8:00.

I've had peppermints that did a fabulous job and lived a long time eating aiptasia.  Other times, not so much. 

Now in this tank, I can't keep peps alive for some reason.  I may try some more soon, though.  I am going to Gerber's today for a couple rainbowfish for my FW tank and snag a few more small cleaner hermits while I'm there. 

[HUNGER]

i whould try and get peppermints from a good lfs mite have better luck with them ive seen some nice ones at Aquatic Specialists and Coral Ranch

[Aquatic Specialists]

We are running a special on Peppermints this weekend $4.50ea or 3 for $12.00.

[Reefinmike]

i've had aptasia in my biocube for nearly three years now, there were never more than 5 small aptasias in the tank though. I recently got a peppermint shrimp, and it took care of all but one. A surefire way to kill the aptasia that you can see, is to get the two part green and white stick epoxy, and just cover the anenome for a week and remove the epoxy.

[~reefchik~]

Well, the holidays have taken their toll on me this week.  I haven't even been thinking about getting here to post for several days!  (Christmas done right can kill ya).

I got a Klein's.  Nice little fish.  We've watched him munch at least two aips so far, and pull the arms off another one.  The largest one in the tank.  Hopefully soon he will develop a real appetite for them!

[ghurlag]

I know everyone has pretty well covered it, but copperbands do wonders.  A friend of mine (55g) was losing the aip battle and bought one.  Within a week the aips were all gone.  His is a fish only tank, so he holds no hope of culturing a massive collection of reef flora and fauna.  I am formulating a reef build in a 29g, and really don't want too many fish (a couple clowns, royal gramma, some sort of goby), so I was interested to see the input on the peppermint shrimp - and my son likes them, too!

[~reefchik~]

Every flippin' one of the aiptasia is gone!!

Now to research what Klein's SECOND favorite food is!  I'm impressed....

And nice to see you posting, Ghurlag!
 

[HUNGER]

congrads thats good that there all gone

[rayviv]

Well it sounds like most of you that have had apti. problems have found a remedy. So in the mean time I got 3 peps & a co-banded and guess what? It has been two weeks and none of them have ate any of the aptasia!
 Why Me? 

[woltersb]

Try a file fish when I was given my tank it had literally hundreds of thethings he ate them all

[HUNGER]

Well it sounds like most of you that have had apti. problems have found a remedy. So in the mean time I got 3 peps & a co-banded and guess what? It has been two weeks and none of them have ate any of the aptasia!
 Why Me? 

well just because it works for one person doesnt mean it will work for every one

[jeblin]

My raccoon butterfly (thanks Joel!) took care of mine. Nice fish and easier to get on regular foods than copperbands from what I've heard.

[lazylivin]

Just wanted to add that their are a couple of different kinds of aiptasia that I have seen. I had two types in my tank. The thin more common glass kind which the peppermint shrimp destroyed in a week. Then this other really thick kind. Looks similar to the Majano with the color of aiptasia. The shrimp did not touch any of those. Not sure if genetically are Majano, aiptasia or something completely different. 

[Wall_Tank]

so I was interested to see the input on the peppermint shrimp - and my son likes them, too!

I've used peppermints, they do okay keeping the small ones away, but won't touch larger ones

[UDflyer00]

Will all of these butterfly eat my cocoa worm?  I have aiptasia, but have been worried the copperband would eat the cocoa worm so I've stayed away.  Are the Klein and Raccoon the same?

[slandis3]

I would say yes they would. Mine cleared my tank of all the tube worms I had.

[UDflyer00]

I guess I need to make the choice, $20 worm, or endless days of manually treating each aiptasia only to have them not be gone for good...  My co-workers raz me that it sounds like a no brainer and I should just get the butterfly!!

[UDflyer00]

Okay sorry to double post, but it's a REAL slow day at work and I've been pondering this topic since my original reply...  I really want to kick this aiptasia problem naturally.  I can't reach all the aiptasia with my little syringe and the joe's juice so I'd really like to try the natural (fish, shrimp, or both) way, but I really want to choose the solution that is not going to eat and kill everything else...

Here is what is currently in my tank:
Fish - 2 Sebae Clowns, 1 flame hawk, 2 bar gobies, 1 pink spot gobie, 1 flasher wrasse
Inverts:
  -- 2-3 Green Bubble Tip Anemones
  -- Green Bristle Star
  -- numerous cleaner snails and crabs
  -- 2 Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp
  -- 1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
  -- 1 Cocoa Worm
Corals:
  -- A few zoa rocks
  -- a large hammer cluster
  -- a 2 headed green torch
  -- GSP growing everywhere... (at least it's covering the rock, but I wish it would SLOW down!!)
  -- a few different types of Mushrooms
  -- and finally a large growth of brown polys (50+ if I had to guess)

From what I've been reading on here and what I've found out on the web, there are 3 possible options: a butterfly, a bristle tail filefish, and/or peppermint shrimp

What I've seemed to determine that the Bristle tail would do good, but would most likely kill my shrimps and maybe my bubble tip, the Peppermint shrimp, which I've done before buying 8-10 at a time thanks to Marine Solutions but all just seem to dissappear never to be seen again, and finally the Copperband or Klein's butterfly...  I've heard all the success stories of the CBB, my cousin Bobby (hamiltro) has one in his tank and it really cleaned house, but then I've read that they may nip at LPS.

So this makes me fear for my torch, the hammer, or even the Bubble Tips??  I know every fish is different, and no one can predict the future (or their keeping it secret), so I'm really just looking for some stories you've had or having with any of this solutions (CBB, File fish, peps), and how you think they might do with the system I've currently got in place.  Would they eat my Torch, hammer, or GBTA?  Or would they eat my cleaner shrimp??  I realize that I would most likely lose the Cocoa worm with a fish solution, but after sitting here thinking about my "fun" last night trying to hit a few here and there last night in the tank I think I'm ready to take some serious steps towards control/cleanup.

Thanks everyone for your time and input...

Mark

[~reefchik~]

Well it sounds like most of you that have had apti. problems have found a remedy. So in the mean time I got 3 peps & a co-banded and guess what? It has been two weeks and none of them have ate any of the aptasia!
 Why Me? 

Don't feel rained on.  My peppermints probably only kept the tiny ones in check.  I was never impressed with their aiptasia-demolishing activities in any of my tanks either.

[~reefchik~]

I would say yes they would. Mine cleared my tank of all the tube worms I had.

Hmmm....


runs to get flashlight to see if my tubeworms are all gone.  I had a LOT.

Mark, the only thing I can vouch at this point is my Fox Coral is so far doing fine.  The Klein's hasn't bothered it yet.  My green brain isn't doing so hot, but I think it's because it's going hungry...or something.